Portable exercising device



April 29, 1958 w. HASTINGS PORTABLE EXERCISING DEVICE Filed Jan. 16, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTUK WHITNEY HASTINGS hi5 ATTORNEYS April 29, 1958 w. HASTINGS PORTABLE EXERCISING DEVICE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Jan. 16, 1958 awe/v70 F WHITNEY 14957 10166 Myffal k1 an ..I

fies ATTORNEYS PORTABLE EXERCISING DEVICE Whitney Hastings, Middletown, Conn. Application January 16, 1958, Serial No. 709,164 3 Claims. (Cl. 272-73) This invention pertains to a portable exercising device, and more particularly to a device adapted to provide leg exercise for the user.

It is an object of the invention to provide a portable device of the so-called bicycle exerciser type, which is characterized by extreme mechanical simplicity and hence low cost of manufacture, and which at the same time provides advantages with respect to the form and manner of exercise obtained from its use which is an improvement over that obtained from prior devices of this general type.

The device is further characterized by the fact that the use of a rigid pedal crank, which previous devices have employed, is not required in order to simulate the pedaling action for purposes of exercise by the user. it is also a feature of the device that the amount of exercise which a user obtains is automatically proportioned to the weight of the user himself. It is a still further feature of the device herein disclosed that more uniform exercise is obtained than in the case of previously known devices of broadly equivalent nature.

In general, the present invention contemplates a very light, mechanically simple device comprising an upright post or standard which the operator, while seated in a chair, holds substantially upright between his knees. A handle is provided at the upper end of the post by which the device may be gripped, while the lower end is rested on the floor between the operators feet, being held slightly inclined from the. vertical toward the user. An oscillatory member, such as a pulley, is attached on a fixed pivot to the post, adjacent the upper end of the latter, so that the member oscillates about an axis lying in the plane passing through the operator and the post. A flexible pedal cord having stirrups at its opposite ends is suspended from the oscillatory member at points equidistant from the central axis of oscillation, and the users feet are supported above the floor by inserting them in the stirrups for operation of the device. By moving his feet in vertical circular paths at each side of the post, the user can thereby simulate the pedaling action of a bicycle, and the weight of one foot and leg imposes the load which is lifted or raised by exerting pressure on the other foot. The load and work are alternately shifted from one foot to the other with each half cycle of operation, and the amount of exercise obtained by the user is thus automatically proportioned to the weight of the user himself.

Many exercising devices are of course well known in the art. The previously known bicycle type of exercisers, however, aside from their complex mechanical construction involving crank arms for the pedals and chain-andsprocket or direct gear drive connections, usually employ a friction device acting on the crank or pedal sprocket (or some other rotary member driven thereby) to simulate a work load. For this reason, a rigid pedal crank has been necessary. In such a device, the work load during each pumping cycle varies continuously. This is so, of course, even though the friction load opposing the rotation of the sprocket is constant, since the work arm, that is the effective leverage, of the pedal crank arms varies continuously during the pumping stroke. This arm or leverage is at a maximum when the pedal crank is perpendicular to the line of thrust imposed by the operator, but this arm falls oif to zero at points one quarter of a revolution to either side of that maximum position. Other devices commonly employed as a means for obtaining leg exercise, having pertinence tothe device here disclosed, employ extension springs or elastic cords as a means for imposing the work load to be opposed by the user. Such devices have the distinct disadvantage that the load is proportional to the amount of extension and varies therewith, and is not related in any way to the weight of the user. Other types require the apparatus employed to be fastened on a wall, as in a gymnasium, and the user must lie on his back on the floor in performing the exercise. These. objections are overcome by the device of the present invention.

The invention herein disclosed is illustrated by the accompanying drawings in which several embodiments are shown.

In the drawings,

Fig. 1 is a front elevational. view of one form of the exercising device;

Fig. 2 is. a view in side elevation of the device seen in Fig. 1, in which the path of movement of an operators feet when using the. device is shown in dotted lines;

Fig. 3 is a front elevational view showing a modified form of the device, and

Fig. 4 is a cross sectional view taken on line 4 -.4 of Fig. 3.

Referring more particularly to Figs. 1 and 2, the exercising device illustrated comprises an upright post or standard 12 provided with a rubber foot 1.4 at its lower end. As here shown, the standard is formed of a length of metal tubing, such as aluminum or steel or the like. It may be desirable, however, to provide foradjustment of the height of the device to accommodate diiferent users, and in that case the upright may be formed of telescoping members having means for holding. or clamping themin different relative positions. At its upper end, the standard has rigidly secured to it by suitable means a T-fitting 16 which carries a crossbar 181 to serve as. a handle for the device. Rubber grips. 20 are placed over the ends of the crossbar for greater convenience in gripping.

As seen in Fig. 2, T-fittiug 16 is provided with bosses 22, 24, at the front and rear of the fitting, respectively, and an axle or shaft 26 is fixedly secured therein so 'as to lie in a plane substantially perpendicular to that defined by the standard and handle. As here shown, the shaft is inclined downwardly somewhat from the perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the standard. In using the exerciser, it is generally more convenient to hold it tipped slightly toward the user, and when so tipped shaft 26 is accordingly disposed horizontally.

A deep flanged sheave or pulley 28 is journaled on the forwardly projecting stub of shaft 26 and is retained thereon by means of a nut 30 threaded on the shaft. The pulley thus oscillates in a plane perpendicular to the plane passing through the user and the standard and can be firmly held in this plane by the user by means of handle 18. A pedal cord 32, having stirrups 34 secured to its opposite ends, passes over the pulley and depends at opposite sides thereof. The stirrups are secured to the cord in this instance by clamps or ferrules 36 squeezed about the two legs of the bight within which the eyes of the respective stirrups 'are carried, but it is obvious that buckles or other take-up means may be substituted to permit adjustment of the length of the pedal cord.

In operation, the device is placed substantially upright between the legs of the user with the rubber foot 14 resting on the floor between the users feet, so that the handle 18 is disposed above the users knees for convenient gripping. Preferably the device is so held that the pulley is on the side of the standard away from the user. The users feet are then inserted in the loops of the stirrups. The user preferably moves his feet in a circular path, as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 2, simulating the pedaling action of a bicycle. In this device, since a pulley is used and since the axis of the pulley is fixed so that the pulley cannot turn from side-to-side as the users feet are moved in the aforesaid circular paths, the eifective leverage of cord 32 at each side of the pulley remains the same regardless of the vertical position of the stirrups. By this arrangement also, there is no force acta ing on the users feet, as there would be if the pulley axis were free to swivel or turn from side-to-side, tending to divert the users feet from their respective parallel planes of motion at each side of the standard, the pulley always being disposed at 90 to the said planes of foot travel. In this Way, a smooth, rythmic exercising motion is obtained.

A modification utilizing the inventive concept is shown in Fig. 3 of the accompanying drawings. Again the device consists of a standard 12 having a rubber foot 14 and a handle 18 by which to grip and support the unit ii.

at its upper end. In this instance, however, the T-fitting which supports the handle or crossbar 18 is formed of a split casting or complementary pressed metal plates 50 adapted to be clamped to the upper end of the standard 12 and to grip the crossbar 18 by means of rivets 52 or the equivalent. Plates 50 carry between them a pair of small pulleys 54 in side-by-side relation which are journaled on parallel stub shafts 56 fixedly secured between the plates in the throat of the fitting at either side of the standard. Pedal cord 32, to which stirrups 34 are secured, passes over each of the pulleys 54. The device is thus very similar to the arrangement shown in Fig. 1 but substitutes the two smaller pulley-s for the large single one of the previous example.

It is characteristic of all forms of devices within the invention that the central axis of operation of the oscillatory means is in or parallel to the plane passing through the user and the standard, and that this axis is fixed with respect to the standard. By this arrangement, uniform bicycling type exercise is obtained through the use of inexpensive flexible pedal cords instead of the far more expensive type of rigid pedal crank and sprocket heretofore employed.

Modifications other than those specifically described above are of course possible, and the invention may be accordingly carried out in other ways within the scope of the appended claims.

This application is a continuation-in-part of my prior application Ser. No. 627,794, filed December 12, 1956, now abandoned.

What is claimed is:

1. An exercising device for use by a seated operator comprising a portable substantially vertical standard having a rigid transverse handle bar at its upper end, said standard being of a length sufficient to dispose said handle bar above the operators knees when the standard is held upright on the floor, a bearing member fixedly secured to said standard adjacent its upper end with the axis of said bearing member extending in a plane substantially perpendicular to that defined by said standard and handle bar, an oscillatory member journaled on said bearing member, cord means depending from opposite sides of said oscillatory member, and stirrups provided at the lower ends of said cord means.

2. A11 exercising device for use by a seated operator comprising a portable substantially vertical standard having a transverse handle bar fixed at its upper end, said standard being of a length sufiicient to dispose said handle bar above the operators knees when the standard is held upright on the floor, an axle fixedly secured to said standard adjacent the upper end of the latter to project in a plane perpendicular to that defined by said standard and handle bar, a pulley journaled forrotation on said axle, a cord trained over said pulley and depending at opposite sides of said standard, and stirrups fastened at the lower opposite ends of said cord.

3. An exercising device as defined in claim 2, which includes a second axlefixedly secured to said standard and extending in the same direction as, and parallel to, the other, said axles being disposed at each side of said standard, and a pulley journalled for rotation on said second axle, said cord passing over the pulley on each axle and depending at opposite sides of said standard.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,673,088 Wentz Mar. 23, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 425,012 Germany Feb. 9, 1926 456,966 Germany Mar. 7, 1928 

